After a stellar 2018, earnings expectations for the S&P 500 have been ratcheted down for this year. Total returns will increasingly come from sources other than earnings.Earnings estimates in developed markets have been cut continuously over the past six months. The consensus expectation for earnings growth in 2019 for the S&P 500 is now around 3.5%. This compares with stellar earnings growth of 24.1% in the US in 2018, thanks in large part to the end-2017 US tax cuts announced by...
Read More »Increasing growth visibility would reassure investors
The world economy goes into 2018 with strong momentum, but policy makers could do more to improve visibility and risk asset valuations leave no room for disappointment.The current growth phase of the economic cycle started almost nine years ago in the U.S. and some emerging countries, making it the second-longest period of expansion in modern American history after the 1960s. But, increasingly, the question of whether a new recession is imminent or not has been coming up in discussions about...
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